As far as the four-man ghost-hunting crew Paraletic Activities are concerned, ghosts have between the hours of 8pm and 11pm to make themselves known. “We’re getting too old for the paranormal all-nighters!” laughs John Smith, 51, who by daylight hours is a commercial signwriter. At weekends he joins Neil, Luke and Nigel, three fellow 30- to 50-something Walsall Ghostbusters fans who have carried their childhood passion for the paranormal into middle age to form Paraletic Activities. They meet to drink real ale and explore the many reputedly haunted locations that litter the Midlands, from the ruins of Grace Dieu Priory in Leicestershire to spooky pubs such as The Four Crosses in Cannock.
The crew’s technology, honed over a decade in the ghost-hunting game, includes “Old Faithful”, a meter that measures fluctuations in the electromagnetic field, and “Carol Anne”, a 1970s portable television set that the team believes registers localised static interference. Carol Anne takes her name from the suburban child who became a conduit and target for supernatural entities in the 1980s Poltergeist trilogy.
